Software project history database and method of operation

ABSTRACT

A distributed program configuration database system is designed for use on a client-server network. The system consists of a plurality of program servers which maintain version information for various program components. A program developer, upon logging into a client terminal on the network, establishes a workspace or project and connects with one of the servers. After connection to the server has been made, a draft of the program configuration is retrieved from the server. The configuration draft may include information for constructing some of the program components and &#34;bridge&#34; information identifying other program servers where additional program components are located. The workspace uses the component information to assemble components and the bridge information to connect to other servers and retrieve the remaining components in order to assemble the complete source code for a program in the workspace.

COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION

Portions of this patent application contain materials that are subjectto copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to thefacsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document, or the patentdisclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office. All otherrights are expressly reserved.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to improvements in computer systemsand, more particularly, to object-oriented software for managingchanges, revisions and modifications in software program developmentprojects.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The heart of a modern computer system is the software program whichcontrols and coordinates the operation of the hardware components. Theseries of commands or steps which comprise the program are generallystored in a text file called a source code file. The program statementsin the source code file are generally human-readable and can be composedand edited by the program developer. As will be explained in more detailbelow, the human-readable source code is converted, or compiled, byanother program called a compiler into binary object code which canactually be executed by the hardware.

When computer systems were first developed, both the hardware and thesoftware programs were considerably simpler than they are today. Thehardware consisted of a single processor and early software programswere relatively small and compact and generally consisted of a singletext file which held the source code.

As both hardware and software became more sophisticated and softwaredevelopment progressed, programs grew in size and complexity. Therefore,it became necessary to break the program into smaller, more easilyunderstood pieces. Breaking the program into pieces also had theadvantage that, during program development, each piece of source codecould be separately compiled into object code, a process that was muchfaster than compiling the entire program. Also, due to the complexityand time required to develop reliable software code, techniques weredeveloped that allowed code pieces which were already developed to bereused in different parts of a single program and also between twoseparate programs.

For example, structured programming techniques were developed where mostof the source code was written as separate subroutines and the mainprogram simply calls the subroutines. In many cases it was convenient tostore collections of the subroutines in separate files.

With the advent of object-oriented programming, the potential of reusingportions of prewritten code is greatly increased, but the complexity ofthe programs has increased even further. More particularly, as willhereinafter be described in more detail below, object-oriented programsconsist of a collection of inter-related objects. In many modernprogramming languages each of these objects is typically defined by aheader file which contains definitions of the data structures and thesubroutines, or methods, which comprise the object. The object furtherhas a source code file which contains the code which implements themethods. In a modern object-oriented program, the number of objectseasily climbs into the hundreds and, in some cases, into the thousands.As with structured programs, collections of objects are generally placedin separate files so that a complex program may include hundreds offiles.

Since the objects are interrelated, it is common for program files toreference other program files. This interrelation necessitates some typeof file management to keep track of the files during compilation. Forexample, a typical program development sequence is shown in greatlysimplified form in FIG. 1.

More particularly, the sequence starts in step 100 and proceeds to step102 where overall design criteria are established for the softwareprogram. Then, in step 104, a program developer composes source code inorder to control the computer to meet the design criteria established instep 102. As previously mentioned, the source code may comprise manydifferent files which correspond to classes for creating, menus, icons,bitmaps, text strings, screen layouts and other components of thesystem.

Next, in step 106, the source code is compiled by a compiler programinto object modules. Each separate source file may be compiledseparately into a corresponding object module which contains binarycode. The separate object modules are linked together in step 108 bymeans of a linker program to generate an executable program (which canactually be run on a computer). Next, in step 110, the executableprogram is run and evaluated against the design criteria established instep 102. If, based on the results of the evaluation in step 110, theprogram is found to meet design criteria in step 112 then the programdevelopment is finished (indicated by step 116). However, if the programis found not to meet design criteria, the source code is edited in step114 and the compilation and linking steps, 106 and 108, are thenrepeated until the program eventually meets design criteria.

Generally, the editing of the source code in step 114 involves editingof some, but not all of the source code files. However, since some ofthe files may reference other files, certain source code files may haveto be recompiled even if they have not themselves been modified. Forexample, if a subobject is modified the object file which contains areference to the subobject may also have to be recompiled in step 106.Thus, it is necessary to keep track of references between files so thatdifferent changes or revisions to a file will reflect changes to otherrelated files.

One conventional way to maintain references between source code files isa "project" file. The project file is a simplified database whichmaintains a list of source code files along with the references betweenthe files and the current state of each file (whether the file has beenmodified or not). Generally, the file state is maintained by a date andtime stamp which is applied to each source code file when the file ismodified. When a project file is used, the compilation step takes theform of a project "build" during which all source code files in theproject database which, need recompiling are sequentially compiled. Theproject file also contains a date and time stamp for the last buildtime. The next time the executable program is built, the programdevelopment management software compares the time stamp of each sourcecode file to the time stamp saved in the project file during the lastprogram build. Those source codes files which have a time stamp laterthan the last build date are recompiled before linking.

The project file approach works well for small and medium size projectswhere only a few people are working on the project at the same time,however, in large projects, the project file approach becomes abottleneck. In such large projects, there are often program developmentteams which share objects and other program components within a projectand between projects. Accordingly, it is necessary in large projects tohave some type of source code control program which can coordinate useof the these objects among projects to insure that the correct versionis used during compilation.

Several commercial source code control systems are presently availableincluding RCS, SCCS, and MPW Projector, however, these systems managecurrent versions of the source code for individual files and are notcapable of managing any other additional information that can be used tocontrol the code, for example, extra configuration information. Furtherthese systems cannot provide history information concerning versions ofthe relationships between files which are useful for comparison andmerging purposes.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide aprogram development management system which supports the reliablesharing and reuse of objects and other program components by a programdevelopment team.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a programdevelopment management system which maintains configuration and revisioninformation and which can store different code versions developed overtime.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide aprogram development management system which utilizes a distributeddatabase operating over a network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing objects are achieved and the foregoing problems are solvedin one illustrative embodiment of the invention in which a distributedprogram configuration database system is designed for use on a clientserver network. The system consists of a plurality of program serverswhich maintain version information for various program components.

A program developer, upon logging into a client terminal on the network,establishes a workspace or project and connects with one of the servers.After connection to the server has been achieved, a draft of the programconfiguration is retrieved from the server. The configuration draft mayinclude information for constructing some of the program components and"bridge" information identifying other program servers where additionalprogram components are located. The workspace uses the componentinformation to assemble components and the bridge information to connectto other servers and retrieve the remaining components in order toassemble the complete source code for a program in the workspace.

The servers may be shared among projects and store several versions ofthe code. Methods are provided in the servers to retrieve code versionsand to generate code configurations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram of a program development cycle.

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of a prior art client server system onwhich the present invention can run.

FIG. 3 is a simplified schematic of a personal computer system which cancomprise either the client or the server node illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative block diagram showing the arrangement ofprogram components within a project and the relationship of the programcomponents to different program history servers.

FIG. 5 is a block schematic diagram of a Project and a Project HistoryServer illustrating the major components of each.

FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the creation of anagent object for performing transactions between a Project workspace andan associated History Server.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the steps performed in connecting aProject workspace to an associated History Server.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the steps performed during aCreateDraft command.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the steps involved in a RetrieveDraft command.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

The Project History Server of the present invention can be implementedin several ways. The simplest implementation is to use a single,centralized database contained in a local server node to hold a completelist of program components for all projects on the system. However, apreferred implementation uses several history servers connected to anetwork and distributes the program components over these servers. Anexample of such a distributed system is shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2illustrates a computer network arranged in a "client-server"configuration comprising a plurality of client nodes 206, 208, 220, 222and 228 which may, for example, be workstations, personal computers,minicomputers or other computing devices on which run applicationprograms that communicate over various network links including links202, 210, 216, 226, 234 and 236 with each other and with server nodes,such as nodes 200, 212, 224, 232 and 238. The server nodes may containspecialized hardware devices and software programs that can provide aservice or set of services to all or some of the client nodes. Theclient nodes are the users of the various network services which, inturn, are provided by the server nodes

Typically, project history databases 204, 213 and 229 are located inseveral of the server nodes, such as nodes 200, 212 and 232. A clientnode, such as client node 206, can access one or more of the databases204, 213, 229 by initializing a project workspace 207 in node 206 andconnecting to one of the server nodes which contains an entry associatedwith that project, such as database 204 in node 200, entering a projectidentifier or name and retrieving both the program components stored indatabase 204 and also network addresses of other servers which containcomponents of the project. The mechanism of initializing a projectworkspace, connecting to a history server and retrieving componentdrafts or versions will be discussed in detail below.

Both the client and server portions of the invention are preferablypracticed in the context of an operating system resident on a personalcomputer such as the IBM, PS/2, or Apple, Macintosh, computer. Arepresentative hardware environment which may comprise either the clientnode or the server node in FIG. 2 is depicted in FIG. 3, whichillustrates a typical hardware configuration of a computer 300 inaccordance with the subject invention. The computer 300 is controlled bya central processing unit 302, which may be a conventionalmicroprocessor; a number of other units, all interconnected via a systembus 308, are provided to accomplish specific tasks. Although aparticular computer may only have some of the units illustrated in FIG.3 or may have additional components not shown, most computers willinclude at least the units shown.

Specifically, computer 300 shown in FIG. 3 includes a random accessmemory (RAM) 306 for temporary storage of information, a read onlymemory (ROM) 304 for permanent storage of the computer's configurationand basic operating commands and an input/output (I/O) adapter 310 forconnecting peripheral devices such as a disk unit 313 and printer 314 tothe bus 308, via cables 315 and 312, respectively. A user interfaceadapter 316 is also provided for connecting input devices, such as akeyboard 320, and other known interface devices including mice, speakersand microphones to the bus 308. Visual output is provided by a displayadapter 318 which connects the bus 308 to a display device 322 such as avideo monitor. The workstation has resident thereon and is controlledand coordinated by operating system software such as the Apple System/7,operating system.

In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in the C++programming language using object-oriented programming techniques. C++is a compiled language, that is, programs are written in ahuman-readable script and this script is then provided to anotherprogram called a compiler which generates a machine-readable numericcode that can be loaded into, and directly executed by, a computer. Asdescribed below, the C++ language has certain characteristics whichallow a software developer to easily use programs written by otherswhile still providing a great deal of control over the reuse of programsto prevent their destruction or improper use. The C++ language iswell-known and many articles and texts are available which describe thelanguage in detail. In addition, C++ compilers are commerciallyavailable from several vendors including Borland International, Inc. andMicrosoft Corporation. Accordingly, for reasons of clarity, the detailsof the C++ language and the operation of the C++ compiler will not bediscussed further in detail herein.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, Object-OrientedProgramming (OOP) techniques involve the definition, creation, use anddestruction of "objects". These objects are software entities comprisingdata elements and routines, or functions, which manipulate the dataelements. The data and related functions are treated by the software asan entity and can be created, used and deleted as if they were a singleitem. Together, the data and functions enable objects to model virtuallyany real-world entity in terms of its characteristics, which can berepresented by the data elements, and its behavior, which can berepresented by its data manipulation functions. In this way, objects canmodel concrete things like people and computers, and they can also modelabstract concepts like numbers or geometrical designs.

Objects are defined by creating "classes" which are not objectsthemselves, but which act as templates that instruct the compiler how toconstruct the actual object. A class may, for example, specify thenumber and type of data variables and the steps involved in thefunctions which manipulate the data. An object is actually created inthe program by means of a special function called a constructor whichuses the corresponding class definition and additional information, suchas arguments provided during object creation, to construct the object.Likewise objects are destroyed by a special function called adestructor. Objects may be used by using their data and invoking theirfunctions.

The principle benefits of object-oriented programming techniques ariseout of three basic principles; encapsulation, polymorphism andinheritance. More specifically, objects can be designed to hide, orencapsulate, all, or a portion of, the internal data structure and theinternal functions. More particularly, during program design, a programdeveloper can define objects in which all or some of the data variablesand all or some of the related functions are considered "private" or foruse only by the object itself. Other data or functions can be declared"public" or available for use by other programs. Access to the privatevariables by other programs can be controlled by defining publicfunctions for an object which access the object's private data. Thepublic functions form a controlled and consistent interface between theprivate data and the "outside" world. Any attempt to write program codewhich directly accesses the private variables causes the compiler togenerate an error during program compilation which error stops thecompilation process and prevents the program from being run.

Polymorphism is a concept which allows objects and functions which havethe same overall format, but which work with different data, to functiondifferently in order to produce consistent results. For example, anaddition function may be defined as variable A plus variable B (A+B) andthis same format can be used whether the A and B are numbers, charactersor dollars and cents. However, the actual program code which performsthe addition may differ widely depending on the type of variables thatcomprise A and B. Polymorphism allows three separate functiondefinitions to be written, one of each type of variable (numbers,characters and dollars). After the functions have been defined, aprogram can later refer to the addition function by its common format(A+B) and, during compilation, the C++ compiler will determine which ofthe three functions is actually being used by examining the variabletypes. The compiler will then substitute the proper function code.Polymorphism allows similar functions which produce analogous results tobe "grouped" in the program source code to produce a more logical andclear program flow.

The third principle which underlies object-oriented programming isinheritance, which allows program developers to easily reusepre-existing programs and to avoid creating software from scratch. Theprinciple of inheritance allows a software developer to declare classes(and the objects which are later created from them) as related.Specifically, classes may be designated as subclasses of other baseclasses. A subclass "inherits" and has access to all of the publicfunctions of its base classes just as if these function appeared in thesubclass. Alternatively, a subclass can override some or all of itsinherited functions or may modify some or all of its inherited functionsmerely by defining a new function with the same form (overriding ormodification does not alter the function in the base class, but merelymodifies the use of the function in the subclass). The creation of a newsubclass which has some of the functionality (with selectivemodification) of another class allows software developers to easilycustomize existing code to meet their particular needs.

Although object-oriented programming offers significant improvementsover other programming concepts, program development still requiressignificant outlays of time and effort, especially if no pre-existingsoftware programs are available for modification. Consequently, a priorart approach has been to provide a program developer with a set ofpre-defined, interconnected classes which create a set of objects andadditional miscellaneous routines that are all directed to performingcommonly-encountered tasks in a particular environment. Such pre-definedclasses and libraries are typically called "application frameworks" andessentially provide a pre-fabricated structure for a workingapplication.

For example, an application framework for a user interface might providea set of pre-defined graphic interface objects which create windows,scroll bars, menus, etc. and provide the support and "default" behaviorfor the graphic interface objects. Since application frameworks arebased on object-oriented techniques, the pre-defined classes can be usedas base classes and the built-in default behavior can be inherited bydeveloper-defined subclasses and either modified or overridden to allowdevelopers to extend the framework and create customized solutions in aparticular area of expertise. This object-oriented approach provides amajor advantage over traditional programming since the programmer is notchanging the original program, but rather extending the capabilities ofthe original program. In addition, developers are not blindly workingthrough layers of code because the framework provides architecturalguidance and modeling and, at the same time, frees the developers tosupply specific actions unique to the problem domain.

There are many kinds of application frameworks available, depending onthe level of the system involved and the kind of problem to be solved.The types of frameworks range from high-level application frameworksthat assist in developing a user interface, to lower-level frameworksthat provide basic system software services such as communications,printing, file systems support, graphics, etc. Commercial examples ofapplication frameworks include MacApp (Apple), Bedrock (Symantec), OWL(Borland), NeXT Step App Kit (NEXT), and Smalltalk-80 MVC (ParcPlace).

While the application framework approach utilizes all the principles ofencapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance in the object layer, and isa substantial improvement over other programming techniques, there aredifficulties which arise. These difficulties are caused by the fact thatit is easy for developers to reuse their own objects, but it isdifficult for the developers to use objects generated by other programs.Further, application frameworks generally consist of one or more object"layers" on top of a monolithic operating system and even with theflexibility of the object layer, it is still often necessary to directlyinteract with the underlying operating system by means of awkwardprocedural calls.

In the same way that an application framework provides the developerwith prefab functionality for an application program, a system frameworkfor handling software program components, such as that included apreferred embodiment, can provide a prefab functionality for systemlevel services which developers can modify or override to createcustomized solutions, thereby avoiding the awkward procedural callsnecessary with the prior art application frameworks programs.

In accordance with the principles of the invention, the programdevelopment management system comprises two major parts: the Project andthe Project History. The Project, or the Workspace, is located in one ofthe client terminals and is where applications, shared libraries, etc.are developed. A Project History is a database which maintains variousdrafts, or versions, of the Project and is located in one or more servernodes. Therefore, Projects and Project Histories have a client-serverrelationship. Logically, a Project is a client of a single ProjectHistory even though, physically, portions of that single Project Historymay be located in several different servers so that, in fact, theProject will be connected to, and using, several different ProjectHistory Servers simultaneously.

A Project History server manages a single history database which isresponsible for maintaining current drafts and histories of programcomponents which are part of the client Project. Since all access to ahistory database is via its one and only history server, history serversare responsible for coordinating concurrent access to history database.In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the history database ispreferably an object-oriented database. The details of such a databaseare not important for an understanding of the present invention, but adatabase suitable for use with the present invention is discussed indetail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,533 which is assigned to Taligent, Inc.,the assignee of the present invention.

THE PROJECT

A simplified diagram illustrating program components in a project isshown in FIG. 4. FIG. 5 shows the major components of a Project and aProject History server. Within the Project 500, the program components508-512 are organized in a single tree 506 rooted at the project, orroot, component 508. This tree is shown in more detail in FIG. 4 wherethe tree 402 is comprised of components 404-412. The program components404-412 might comprise, for example, program code defining andimplementing classes used to construct objects, program code used todefine and implement menus, binary images for bitmaps and icons, textstring files and other conventional program components.

As shown in FIG. 4, program components 404-412 are each associated witha program history server on which the previous drafts or revisions ofthe component are stored. For example, root component 404 is associatedwith server 0 (denoted by numeral 416 which stores a draft 418) asindicated schematically by arrow 414. Similarly, components 2 and 3 (406and 408, respectively) are associated with server 1 (422, storing drafts424 and 426) as indicated by arrow 420. Component 4 (410) is associatedwith server 2 (430, storing draft 432) and component 5 (412) isassociated with server 3 (436, storing draft 438).

In order to maintain consistent configurations, a rule is imposed that asingle history server can only be associated with exactly one subtree.Thus, according to this rule, component 412 can be associated withhistory server 436 or history server 430, but it can not be associatedwith history server 422 because the component's parent, component 410 isalready associated with history server 430.

The logical model is that there is a single history server per Project,but the components which comprise the Project may be physicallydistributed in multiple history servers as illustrated in FIG. 4. Inaccordance with the principles of the invention, the program componentswhich comprise the Project are assembled at the time that the Project isinitialized. In particular, the Project has persistent memory associatedwith it which identifies the server node where the history serverresides for the root component of the Project.

During the process of initializing the Project workspace, the storedhistory server identity is used to connect to this history server andretrieve a specific configuration of the Project. As will hereinafter beexplained in detail, this configuration contains information concerningcomponents physically located on that history server, but alsoinformation which may lead to connections to other history servers.During the process of initialization, the components located in thehistory server are added to the Project workspace component tree 506. Inaccordance with the invention, the other history servers are connectedautomatically and the program developer does not need to know about theadditional connections (unless some of the servers are not reachable orare no longer in existence-which are exceptional cases). During theconnection process, the Project also creates and maintains a table 504of all history servers to which it is connected. This table and thehistory server connections persist for the life of the project.

In the Project workspace and the History Servers there are various kindsof components and each component has a set of properties. A componentkind or a property kind is identified by a name (represented as text).For example, the name Class is a component kind which represents a C++class. Similarly, the name Implementation is a property kind whichrepresents an attribute (in this case an implementation) of a givencomponent. There can be no two component kinds which are identified bysame name; the same holds true for property kinds. One importantproperty associated with each component is a "Members" property whichcontains a list of all subcomponents associated with that component. TheMembers property allows the subcomponents to be located for eachcomponent.

For efficiency, the workspace (and the program history servers) identifyeach component kind and each property kind by a string token id (anindex number representing a text string). The string token ids are notpersistent however, so the index value of a given text string may varybetween sessions and machines. This implies that the string token idvalue may not be the same in a history and the workspace for the samecomponent kind.

Each program component in a Project is identified by a pair of uniqueIDs. The first ID, called the component ID, represents a componentindependent of its version. The second ID, called the version ID,identifies which version of the component. Together, the two ID'suniquely identify one version of a component. During the creation of anew component in the Project workspace, both a new, unique component IDand a new, unique version ID are created. Multiple components with thesame component ID can exist simultaneously within a Project, but eachmust have a unique version ID. Furthermore, there can only be zero orone version of each component in the Project that is associated with thecurrent configuration.

Ultimately, components can only be uniquely identified by both theircomponent and version ID. However, in order to facilitate the commoncase of accessing a component in the current configuration, the Projectprovides a means whereby components can be accessed with only theircomponent ID. In this case, the Project assumes that the desired versionof the component is the one in the current configuration.

The Project's ability to identify which component versions are containedwithin the current configuration allows a level of indirection whenaccessing components that obviates the need for locating and updatingexisting references to that component when the version changes. Forexample, no references are updated when a new version of component iscreated or another version is retrieved. Without this indirection thesystem would have to locate and update the version ID part of everyreference to the modified component contained within any property in thedatabase.

Special information called metadata is used to associate a set ofproperties with a specific component kind. The metadata for all of thecomponents in the Project defines the "schema" of the Project workspaceand this schema is stored in persistent storage and read in by theProject workspace as part of initialization and stored in a file 502 asillustrated in FIG. 5.

A workspace schema has the potential to change over various releases ofworkspace, e.g., there may be new component kinds or the property setfor a specific component kind may change. The history servers connectedto a new release of the workspace must have the ability to cope with thechanges so that old program histories are still usable. Moreparticularly, the possible changes to a schema of a Project workspaceinclude the following:

Σ adding/deleting component kinds

Σ adding/deleting properties associated with a component kind or achange in the component's metadata.

Σ adding/deleting a property kind

Σ changing the definition of a property kind (the streamed informationof the property kind has changed between releases of workspace)

As will be hereinafter described in detail, when the Project workspaceconnects to a history server, in the process of establishing theconnection, the history server will receive enough information to detectall these changes except the last one (where the definition of aproperty kind may change). Since the Project history does not interpretthe definition of a property kind, the Project workspace must handlethis last change by maintaining versioning of the Store and Fetchfunctions used to store and retrieve the Project workspace persistentdata.

In accordance with the object-oriented nature of the program developmentsystem, both the component tree and its nodes would be encapsulated inobjects which are combined in another object, TProgramWorkspace whichrepresents the Project. The component tree is encapsulated in an objectalong with an iterator which "walks" over all of the tree branches andreturns the component IDs. The component tree can be implemented usingconventional tree structures and will not be discussed further herein.The Project workspace contains a THistoryManager object which controlsaccess to the Project History Server.

THE PROJECT HISTORY SERVER

The components of a History Server are shown in simplified form in FIG.5. These components are part of a THistoryServer object which controlsaccess to the components stored in the database. Each History Servermaintain a list 516 of the connection information regarding otherHistory Servers referenced by the project configurations stored on thatServer. However, a History Server never directly establishes a physicalconnection with other History Servers (a History Server is never a"client" of another History Server). The Project workspace connects toall the required History Servers to retrieve included componentinformation. These latter connections are maintained in a persistentmanner as long as there are components in the project configurationwhich refer to the connected History Servers.

In addition to the History Server list maintained at each HistoryServer, a global metadata file 518 is also maintained. This filecontains the union of all schemes of the projects connected to thisHistory Server over a period of time. The file is maintained by objectscreated from a class TClientMetaData. A TClientMetaData object iscreated each time a client project connects to the History Server andprovides all the methods and protocols required to read in the schema ofthe client and add new component kinds and property names to the globalhistory metadata file. As will hereinafter be explained, at the end ofthe connection process the TClientMetaData object returns a componentkind and property name map along with an ID to the client project forfuture references.

The global metadata file allows the History Server to recognize changesin the client schema during the handshake which occurs in the connectionof a client to a History Server.

The History Server also includes the component database 520 which, inaccordance with the principles of the present invention, maintains ahistory or set of component versions or drafts. Each draft is uniquelyidentified by a component ID and a draft ID. For example, the projectroot component (with component ID of 0) has two drafts, draft 522 with adraft ID of 1 and draft 528 with a component ID of 0 and a draft ID of2. Similarly, the history database contains a component with a componentID of 2and two drafts: draft 524 with draft ID of 1 and draft 530 with adraft ID of 2. A further component with a component ID of N has a draftID of 1.

The THistoryServer object also includes methods which allow thecomponent drafts to be retrieved or created and to generate a graph ofrelationships between component drafts or a history.

The History server interacts with the client Project workspace to storeand retrieve component drafts from the component database. In addition,the History Server provides information which indicates other historyservers where component drafts associated with a project are maintained.This information is encapsulated in Bridge objects.

A Bridge object references a specific draft of a component in a HistoryServer different from the History Server which contains the rootcomponent of a Project. Therefore, the logical connectivity of a Projectconfiguration is maintained by Bridge objects. The bridge objects areidentified in the "Members" property associated with each componentwhich identifies all members of that component. For example, if somemembers of a component C reside in History Servers other than theHistory Server on which component C is stored, then the Members propertyof Component C will contain the Bridges identifying these components aswell as the Members stored on the History Server which stores componentC.

In accordance with one illustrative embodiment of the invention, thereare two types of Bridges: a Draft-Bridge represented by objects createdfrom the class TDraftBridge and a SharedProject-Bridge represented byobjects created from the class TSharedProjectBridge. A Draft-Bridgeobject is used to reference a History server and a specific draft of acomponent in that server. In addition to information encapsulated in aDraft-Bridge object, a SharedProject-Bridge object identifies a SharedProject document, where data is stored regarding a components which areshared between two Projects. Shared Projects will be discussed in moredetail below. Shared Project Bridges are drafted and implemented as aspecial Members property.

For example, the Project root component has a special Members propertyand this Members property will contain the SharedProject-Bridges foreach of the connected shared projects and draft-bridges for componentsin other history severs as well as Members local to the History Serverwhich contains the Project root component.

The Project workspace interacts with its associated history serverthrough three main processes: a Client-Server connection process andCreateDraft and RetrieveDraft commands. First, a Project establishes aconnection to its associated server and then component drafts arecreated and retrieved.

CLIENT-SERVER CONNECTION

The client-server connection is initiated when a Project workspace isinitialized. As previously mentioned, the workspace has persistentstorage associated with it which contains information identifying theserver which contains the root component for the project. Also duringthe process of initialization, the project schema is read in frompersistent storage. The connection is established by a "handshake"process. More specifically, when a Project workspace connects to itsassociated History Server for the first time, the workspace communicatesits schema to the History Server. The History Server compares the schemato its internal global metadata table and returns a mapping table foreach component and property kind in the Project schema. Each entry inthe mapping table has the workspace string token ID and the HistoryServer string token ID for a given component or property kind. TheProject workspace uses this map whenever it needs to communicate thecomponent or property kind to and from the History Server.

If a Project workspace is being initialized for the first time, aspecial method is called which attaches to a History Server and storesthe Project schema and root component ID in the History Server database.

The information which is passed back and forth between the Projectworkspace and its associated History Server is not sent directly by theworkspace to the History Server but is instead conveyed by special"agent" objects that descend from the abstract Class TAgent. The ClassTAgent defines the protocol for all agents to perform jobs that requireinteraction between a Project workspace and one or more History Servers.In particular, in order to establish communications between a Projectworkspace and its associated History Serve: an agent is created at theProject workspace and "sent" to the History Server. At the point whenthe agent is ready to be sent to the server, the agent essentially"splits". An "original" agent remains behind at the Project workspaceand waits for the results to return from the History Server while a copyof the agent object is sent to the History Server. The agent copy neverreturns from the server.

FIG. 6 shows, in a highly schematized form, the creation of an objectdescending from the TAgent class and the relationship between theProject workspace and the associated History Server. In particular aTAgent object 604 is created in the Project workspace 600. After theagent has been created, a TAgent object copy is sent to the HistoryServer 602 as indicated schematically by the arrow 606. Once the TAgentobject copy reaches the History Server 602, it performs a job andgenerates results as indicated schematically by box 608. The results 610are returned to the original agent 604 as indicated by arrow 610. TheTAgent object copy is destroyed at the History Server 602 and neverreturns.

The TAgent object comprises several internal methods which allow it tocarry information to the History Server, perform a job and returnresults to the original agent copy located in the Project workspace.These methods include the following:

Σ HandleAssignment()

Σ JobPrologue()

Σ JobEpilogue()

Σ DoClientWriteJob()

Σ DoServerReadJob()

Σ DoServerwriteJob(), and

Σ DoClientReadJob

The HandleAssignment() method is called to start the agent working. Ingeneral, this method requires a parameter which specifies thetransportation path which the agent will use to travel from the Projectworkspace to the History Server. The agent's job will be complete upon areturn from this method.

Any information from the Project workspace that will be required by theagent at the server must be prepared before the HandleAssignment() callis made. Accordingly, a JobProlog method is used to collect thisinformation and perform any additional work prior to the agent beingtransported to the History Server. The companion method calledJobEpilog() is called after the agent has done whatever job was requiredat the History Server and any results of that job have been receivedback at the Project workspace.

When the agent arrives at the History Server four additional methods canbe called in order to perform the job that the agent has been assignedat the server. These methods are DoClientwriteJob(), DoServerReadJob,DoServerWriteJob, and DoClientReadJob and are called in the precedingorder. Essentially, by using these four methods, the Project workspacewrites a "request" and the server reads the "request". The serverprocesses the request and writes the "results". Finally, the Projectworkspace reads the back the "results".

In order to handle the transportation back and forth from the Projectworkspace to the History Server, specific subclasses of the Class TAgentare instantiated to provide the actual agents which do the work. Forexample, a subclass called TConnectAgent, a descendent of the base ClassTAgent, is used to instantlate a TConnectAgent object which performs theconnection between the Project workspace and its associated HistoryServer. This latter agent is responsible for sending the client metadatato the History Server and receiving the mapping information for thecomponent kinds and property names back from the server. In order to dothis, the copy of the TConnectAgent object which arrives at the servercontains methods which, in turn, call internal methods in the HistoryServer that obtain the root component ID and root component draft ID ofthe root component associated with the project workspace.

The steps involve in establishing a connection between the Projectworkspace and its associated History Server are shown in more detail inFIG. 7. In particular, the connection routine starts in step 700 andproceeds to steps 702 and 703 where the Project workspace is initializedby reading in the client schema from persistent storage (as indicated instep 702), and, subsequently, reading in the History Server locationinformation also from persistent storage as indicated in step 703.

Next, in step 704, a CreateAgent object is instantiated from theCreateAgent class previously discussed. After the object is created instep 708, the original copy of the CreateAgent object sends the clientschema to the History Server. Then, in step 710, a copy of theCreateAgent object is created and sent to the History Server.

In step 712, the CreateAgent copy reads the root component ID andobtains the mapping table (utilizing internal methods in the HistoryServer). Next, in step 714, the original copy of the CreateAgent objectreceives the mapping table returned from the History Server and theconnection routine finishes in step 716.

CREATE DRAFT ROUTINE

After a connection has been established between a Project workspace andits associated history server, the program developer may proceed tocreate and modify program components. A newly-created program componentis added to the component tree in the Project workspace when it iscreated. The component has an internal state which is marked to indicatethat the component needs to be stored or "drafted". In addition tomarking the new component, each component in the new component'sancestral path is also marked to indicated that it, in turn, needs to bedrafted. Propagating the NeedToDraft state in this way guarantees theconsistency of the entire configuration in the Project.

The newly-created component is stored in the associated History Serverdatabase when the program developer invokes the CreateDraft command. TheCreateDraft command first identifies the program components in theProject which need to be drafted. To do this, the command walks the treestarting at the project root component (using the aforementionediterator method) and identifies each component and property whoseinternal state is in the NeedToDraft state. The identified componentsand their modified properties are then sent to their respective HistoryServers. Further compression of the data within the modified propertiesis also possible. The History Servers, in turn, create a version inwhich to receive the modified data and add it to their databases.

Since it is possible that the root of a subtree may belong to adifferent history than its parent component, As the iterator walks fromthe Project root to identify the components and their properties thatneed to be drafted, it also keeps track of the History Server associatedwith each component. Whenever the iterator comes across a situationwhere a subtree root is in a different History Server than the parent,the root of the subtree (belonging to the different Server) is notdrafted in the same History Server as the parent, instead it is marked.Once all components in the parent's Server are drafted, then the markedsubtrees (the ones belonging to different History Servers) are draftedin their own History Servers.

For example, consider the following component hierarchy with associatedHistory Server assignments:

Σ Project (SO)

Σ Component A (S1)

Σ Component B (S2)

Σ Component C (S3)

In this example, the root component, Project, is assigned to HistoryServer, S0 and the program components, A, B and C are assigned toHistory Servers, S1, S2 and S3, respectively.

In this case, the Project workspace will be connected to four servers,S0, S1, S2 and S3. When a CreateDraft command is invoked, by the Projectinto its History Server, S0, a version of the Project root component andits properties are created in History Server S0. The members property ofthis Project root component contains three Bridge objects, one for eachof the components, A, B and C. Using the members property of the Projectroot component, server S0 maintains a list of the History Serverreferences which are referred to by the stored components, in this case,these references would be to History Servers S1, S2 and S3.

The drafts that are created in the History Servers in response to theCreateDraft routine have specific draft attributes including thefollowing:

Σ Draft Name - a draft has one or more static names which are uservisible and user changeable.

Σ Draft Path Name - a draft has one or more path names, these are alsouser visible and changeable.

Σ Draft Date - a date that identifies the data and time when the draftwas created, this is user visible, but assigned by the History Server.

Σ Draft Creator - a text string that identifies the responsible usercreating the draft, this is user visible and assigned by the HistoryServer.

Σ Draft Description - text that identifies the nature of the changes toa draft, this is user visible, and changeable.

A flowchart illustrating the basic steps which take place during theprocessing of a CreateDraft command is shown in FIG. 8. In particular,the CreateDraft routine starts in step 800 and proceeds to step 802where the CreateDraft processing is controlled by an iterator whichtraverses the component tree located in the Project workspace. In orderto process the next component, a check is made in decision step 802whether any nodes remain. If processing is finished, the routineterminates in step 818.

If, in step 802, a decision is made that further nodes remain, theiterator advances to the next subtree node in the component subtree asillustrated in step 804. Next, in decision step 806, a check is made todetermine whether the subtree node is stored in the same History Serveras the parent node. If not, the routine proceeds to step 808 where thesubtree node (which may be a subtree root) is marked for subsequentprocessing and the subtree node is skipped. The routine then proceedsback to step 802 where a check is made to determine whether additionalnodes require processing.

Alternatively, if in step 806, it is determined that the subtree node islocated in the same History Server as the parent node then the routineproceeds to step 808 where the component state corresponding to the nodeis checked. If the state is in a "NeedToDraft" mode, as determined bydecision step 810, then the routine proceeds to step 814 where thecomponent and its properties are sent to the identified History Server.In step 816, the identified History Server adds the component drafts toits database and the routine then proceeds back to step 802 where acheck is made to determine whether any nodes remain in the tree thathave not been processed. Processing is repeated in this manner until allnodes are processed and the routine ends in step 818.

Alternatively, if, in step 812, the state of the component does notindicate that it needs to be drafted, the routine proceeds directly tostep 802 to check whether any nodes in the component tree remain forprocessing.

The CreateDraft transactions are actually performed by agent objectscreated from a class descending from the TAgent class called theTCreateDraftAgent class. This agent object is sent to the associatedHistory Server to draft all changed components in the subtree (the rootof the subtree is defined by a component ID and a draft ID containedwithin the object) The agent drafts only those components which arestored in a given History Server; all other components or nodes arecollected into a list of bridges. For every bridge in the list, bridgeinformation is drafted which is sufficient to allow a subsequentRetrieveDraft command to fetch the real component information from theappropriate server. The caller of the subsequent RetrieveDraft commanduses the bridge list to further draft those components by instantiatingadditional TRetrieveDraftAgent objects with appropriate arguments.

During the actual draft creation, data recovery procedures must befollowed in order to prevent a program developer from losing data as aresult of power failure, network partitioning, or system errors whichoccur during database updating. More particularly, the client-servertransactions can be divided into "simple" and "composite" transactions.A simple transaction modifies, and then "commits" (makes the changespermanent) the data of a single database. For example, the changing andcommitting of a component draft in the project database is a "simple"transaction. Composite transactions are made up of multiple simpletransactions. For example, the CreateDraft command is such a compositetransaction--it can be made up of as many simple transactions as thereare connected history servers.

A composite transaction has almost the same properties as a conventionaldistributed transaction without actually being a conventionaldistributed transaction. The major difference is that, in case of aconventional distributed transaction which includes subtransactions, notransaction will commits unless all of the included subtransactionscommit.

In contrast, in the illustrative embodiment described herein, during theprocessing of a composite transaction, as many of the associated simpletransactions are committed as possible. The composite transaction isdeemed to be in a committed state after all its associated simpletransactions are committed.

For example, assume a composite transaction G is comprised of associatedsubtransactions g1, g2, g3, . . . , gn. The various subtransactionsaccess different databases mainly based on the location of the dataitems which are accessed by composite transaction G. During theprocessing of a composite transaction, the processing mechanism, such asthe CreateDraft command, processes each subtransaction one at a time byinteracting with the appropriate History Server and waits for thecompletion of each transaction before it processes the nextsubtransaction.

In a multiple database environment, such as that illustrated in FIG. 2,some mechanism must be used to recover from the failure of asubtransaction after another subtransaction of the same compositetransaction has been locally committed. The mechanism used in theillustrative embodiment takes advantage of the following facts:

(a) the local databases are autonomous;

(b) there are no simple transactions outside of the compositetransaction scheme; and

(c) the server data is immutable.

Given these facts, the composite transaction processing mechanism onlyhas to insure that the failed subtransaction or subtransactions areeventually completed. To provide recovery of composite transactions aconventional local recovery scheme, such as write ahead logging, is usedto provide recovery for individual databases. Such a recovery scheme isdescribed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,533. In addition,enough state information is maintained to be able to identify the stateor result of each member transaction and the state of the localdatabase. More particularly, each program component in the Projectworkspace maintains a "NeedToDraft" state until successfully committedin the associated History database as a result of a simple transaction.Further, as previously mentioned, each History Server associated withtile root component of a project comprises a History Server Table whichcontains a list of the History Servers connected to the Projectworkspace. The History Server Table also maintains a state for eachserver identifying if a transaction executed on that server reached the"commit" state. At the start of processing of a CreateDraft command, thestate associated with the History Server table entry of each HistoryServer which stores any newly-created or changed components is set to a"NeedToCommit" state.

The CreateDraft command first uses the History Server Table to identifythe set of History Servers involved in the composite transaction. Next,each member of a composite transaction involving one of the HistoryServers is processed and required to reach the commit state (receivedata, and commit) before the next member is processed. If all membertransactions reach the commit state, then the state entry for thatHistory Server in the History Server Table is set to "Committed".

In case of a failure during subtransaction processing on a HistoryServer, the state of that History Server as stored in the History ServerTable will remain as "NeedToCommit". All components belonging to aHistory Server are assumed to be in the same state as theircorresponding History Server. After processing has been completed (asfar as possible) on a particular History Server, processing will pass tothe next member of the composite transaction, and so on.

When processing has been completed, the History Server Table is examinedand those History Servers with an entry state of "NeedToCommit"represent the program components which need to be reprocessed due to afailure. These components are reprocessed to commit after the failurehas been addressed.

RETRIEVE DRAFT ROUTINE

After connection to the History Server which maintains the history of agiven Project, the Project workspace is empty and it is necessary toretrieve previous drafts of the program components to begin using theworkspace. First, after connection to the associated History Server, theworkspace can use a History/Configuration viewer routine in the Projectto examine the various drafts of configurations of the Project. Once adesired draft is identified, component drafts are retrieved by invokingthe RetrieveDraft Command, specifying a root component ID and a draftID.

In response to this command, the History Server retrieves the identifiedroot component draft stored in the database, and using the membersproperty of the root component, walks through the root component draftand returns the included component drafts and all their draftableproperties to the client Project workspace. Bridge objects which specifyconnections to the other servers are returned as part of the Membersproperties of the components.

Upon receiving the component information, the Project workspace createscomponents and properties from the information that the History Serverhas sent. The Project workspace also receives the Bridge objects,establishes the required connections, and transmit the required requeststo the newly connected servers to retrieve additional component drafts.

The RetrieveDraft command may also retrieve additional drafts of a givencomponent and its descendants for compare-merge operations. Theseretrieved components are called orphan components as they do not belongto the configuration of the Project workspace. The retrieval of thesecomponents are transparent to the user and initiated by GetComponent()and Component Exists() commands. The GetComponent() command causes thecomponent to be retrieved from the Project workspace. AComponentExists() Command returns a value which indicates whether therequested component exists in the workspace. When a regularGetComponent() or ComponentExists() command fails to find the componentin the workspace and there exists in the associated History Server acomponent with the specified component and version IDs, then theworkspace will automatically initiate a retrieval and return theappropriate component from the associated History Server.

An additional feature of orphan components is that the associatedproperties can be retrieved on-demand, optionally by the use ofGetProperty() and PropertyExists() commands which parallel theGetComponent() and ComponentExists() commands. The operation ofretrieving a property from its History Server is also transparent to theuser, a regular GetProperty() or PropertyExists() command fails to findthe requested property in the workspace, the workspace willautomatically retrieve the requested property from the associatedHistory Server.

The steps involved in processing a RetrieveDraft command are illustratedin FIG. 9. In particular, the routine starts in step 900 and proceeds tostep 902 where a retrieve draft request is sent from the Projectworkspace to the History Server which stores the Project root component.This request includes the component ID and the draft ID of the rootcomponent of the Project. In response to this request, the HistoryServer examines, in step 903, the members property of the identifiedroot component to determine the components which comprise the Projectconfiguration. If, in step 903, a decision is made that there arefurther members to be processed, then the routine proceeds to step 904and advances to the next member to be processed.

In step 906, the next member is examined to determine the type. If themember is a component, then the routine proceeds to step 908 where thecomponent draft and related properties are returned to the Projectworkspace and, in step 912, the component and its properties are createdin the Project workspace.

Alternatively, if in step 906, a determination is made that the memberis a bridge object, then the routine proceeds to step 910 where thebridge object is returned to the Project workspace and, in step 911, thebridge information is used in the Project workspace to establish aconnection to another History Server to retrieve additional componentinformation.

In the case of either steps 911 or 912, the routine proceeds back tostep 903 where the members property of the root component is examinedfor further steps to be processed. If there are further steps to beprocessed, then steps 904-912 are repeated. If no further members remainto be processed, then the routine terminates in step 914.

As with the connection and CreateDraft commands, information is passedbetween the Project workspace and the associated History Server by meansof agent objects created from a class descending from the TAgent classcalled the TRetrieveDraftAgent class. Objects created from this classretrieve a subtree of components from a specified History Server wherethe root of the subtree is specified by a reference provided to theagent by the Project workspace when the agent is created. In the processof retrieval, some of the nodes may be bridges as opposed to components,but the bridges allow retrieval of other subtrees of components locatedin other History Servers. The copy of the TRetrieveDraftAgent objectsent to the History Server simply collects all the bridges encounteredand returns the bridge information to the Project workspace. Aspreviously described, the bridge information is processed by the Projectworkspace.

When a component defined by a component ID and draft ID pair isretrieved, the following outcomes are possible in the Project workspace:

Σ (1) No other component with the component ID exists

Σ (2) a component with the same component ID exists but with a differentdraft ID and is part of the current configuration

Σ (3) a component with the same component ID and draft ID exists and ispart of the current configuration

Σ (4) a component with the same component ID and draft ID exists, but isan orphan component

Σ (5) a component with the same component ID and draft ID exists but isdeleted

In cases (4) and (5) above the original TRetrieveDraftAgent object whichremains in the Project workspace during the RetrieveDraft transactionsphysically removes the component in the Project workspace beforecreating a new component.

In case (3) the TRetrieveDraftAgent object marks the existing componentas a "SameComponent" and skips the retrieved component.

In case (2), the TRetrieveDraftAgent object marks the existing componentas an "OldDraftComponent" and its subcomponents, if any, as"StaleComponents"

All of the components which get created as part of a RetrieveDraftcommand are marked as "RetrievedComponent" and by default all othercomponents are marked as "NormalComponent".

The listed states help the Project workspace to decide which componentsshould be deleted at the end of the retrieval operation. In particular,all of the components marked as "StaleComponent" are deleted. Inaddition, all of the components marked as "OldDraftComponents" areredefined. Components marked as "NormalComponents" are left unchanged.In the case where a problem or exception occurred during the retrievaloperation, the Project workspace can simply abandon the retrieval anddelete all components marked as "RetrievedComponent" and reset allcomponents in the system as "NormalComponent".

Another similar agent object is also used during a retrieval operation.It is created from a TRetrieveOrphanDraftAgent class. Its operationdiffers slightly from the TRetrieveDraftAgent object in that in cases(3) and (4) listed above the TRetrieveOrphanDraftAgent object skips theretrieval of the component. In all other cases the retrieval of thecomponent is skipped.

SHARED PROJECT DRAFTING

Another way in which the system maintains build-time consistency is bykeeping track of which configuration of a program's components was usedto create a particular executable. This configuration information istagged on both the executable as well as a special project used solelyfor the purpose of compiling, linking, and loading against thatexecutable. This special project is called a Shared Project.

When shared projects are involved, the system communicates with andadvises the user regarding the set of Shared Projects which were in usewhen a particular draft of the Project configuration was created. Themajor point of shared project drafting is to maintain a consistentoperating environment regarding operations that require a specifiedShared Project in a particular build operation. For example, assume thata Project build of a Component Library uses a particular Storage LibraryShared Project, and the specific instance of the Component Library wasdrafted. In this case it is essential for the system to notify thedeveloper regarding the usage of that Storage Library Shared Project ona subsequent retrieval of that particular draft of the ComponentLibrary.

A draft of a project component will maintain a list of Shared ProjectBridges as part of its drafted Members property. Each Shared ProjectBridge maintains the Component ID of the shared project root component,the draft ID of the shared project root component, History Server datarequired to locate and connect to the shared project's History Serverand information required to create a document model required to locateand access the actual shared project document (database).

Each Shared Project will contain the following information: thecomponent ID of the root component, the draft ID of the root component,document model data, and the History Server data identifying the serverwhere the history of the root component of the shared project ismaintained. Having this information in the Shared Project allows adeveloper to examine the historical information regarding Shared Projectcomponents. For example, a developer can connect to the History Serverfrom which the components in the shared project originated, and view thehistory. Conversely, the shared project is able to use the Serverinformation to connect to the History Server and activate theappropriate history viewer.

Having this type of cross referencing between the Shared Project and theHistory allows the system to enforce (in an advisory manner) environmentconsistency.

The foregoing description has been limited to a specific embodiment ofthis invention. It will be apparent, however, that variations andmodifications may be made to the invention, with the attainment of someor all of its advantages. Therefore, it is the object of the appendedclaims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within thetrue spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:
 1. An object-oriented apparatus forcommunicating a job request from a client terminal to a server terminalover a computer network and returning results from the server terminalto the client terminal, the apparatus comprising:(a) means located inthe client terminal for creating an agent object, the agent objectcomprising means for assembling client terminal information relating tothe request, means for establishing a communication path from the clientterminal to the server terminal, means for performing a job whichproduces results at the server terminal; (b) means located at the clientterminal for generating a copy of the agent object; (c) means located atthe client terminal for sending the agent object copy to the serverterminal to perform the job; and (d) means for destroying the agentobject copy at the server terminal.
 2. Object-oriented apparatus forcommunicating a job request from a client terminal to a server accordingto claim 1 wherein the server comprises means for performing jobs at theserver and wherein the agent object comprises means for activating themeans for performing job at the server.
 3. Object-oriented apparatus forcommunicating a job request from a client terminal to a server accordingto claim 1 wherein the agent object further comprises means forreceiving results over the network from the server.
 4. Object-orientedapparatus for communicating a job request from a client terminal to aserver according to claim 1 further comprising means located at theserver for receiving the agent object copy and for executing the agentobject methods.
 5. A program development management system forassembling in a project workspace, a plurality of software programcomponents comprising a program configuration, the system operating on aclient-server network and comprising:a history server connected to thenetwork and comprising a program component database for storing aplurality of program component drafts and a root component identifyingprogram components associated with the program configuration; a clientterminal connected to the network and containing means for creating theproject workspace and means for locating the history server on thenetwork; means located in the client terminal for creating an agentobject, the agent object comprising means for assembling client terminalinformation relating to a program component request, means forestablishing a communication path from the client terminal to thehistory server and means for retrieving program component drafts fromthe program component database using the root component to identifyprogram component drafts belonging to the program configuration; meanslocated at the client terminal for generating a copy of the agentobject; means located at the client terminal for sending the agentobject copy to the history server to retrieve program component drafts;and means for destroying the agent object copy at the history server. 6.A program development management system according to claim 5 wherein thehistory server comprises means for retrieving program component draftsfrom the program component database and wherein the agent objectcomprises means for activating the means for performing jobs at theserver.
 7. A program development management system according to claim 5wherein the agent object further comprises means for receiving programcomponent drafts over the network from the history server.
 8. A programdevelopment management system according to claim 7 further comprisingmeans located at the history server for receiving the agent object copyand for executing the agent object methods.
 9. An object-oriented methodfor communicating a job request from a client terminal to a server overa computer network and returning results from the server to the clientterminal, the method comprising the steps of:A. creating an agent objectin the client terminal; B. assembling client terminal informationrelating to the request; C. establishing a communication path from theclient terminal to the server; D. performing a job which producesresults at the server; E. generating a copy of the agent object in theclient terminal; F. sending the agent object copy from the clientterminal to the server to perform the job; and G. destroying the agentobject copy at the server.
 10. An object-oriented method according toclaim 9 wherein the server comprises a plurality of server objectmethods for performing jobs at the server and wherein step A comprisesthe step of:A1. creating the agent object with a plurality of agentobject methods for calling at least one of the server object methods.11. An object-oriented method according to claim 9 further comprisingthe steps of:H. sending results over the network from the server to theclient terminal; and I. receiving the results at the client terminal.12. An object-oriented method according to claim 9 wherein step Fcomprises the steps of:F1. receiving the agent object copy; and F2.executing the agent object methods.
 13. In a computer, a method forassembling in a project workspace, a plurality of software programcomponents comprising a program configuration over a client-servernetwork, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:A.creating a history server comprising a program component database forstoring a plurality of program component drafts and a root componentidentifying program components associated with the programconfiguration; B. connecting the history server to the network; C.creating a client terminal; D. creating, with the client terminal, theproject workspace; E. locating, with the client terminal, the historyserver on the network; F. connecting the client terminal to the network;G. creating an agent object in the client terminal; H. assembling clientterminal information relating to a program component request; I.establishing a communication path from the client terminal to thehistory server; J. identifying, via the root component program componentdrafts belonging to the program configuration; K. generating a copy ofthe agent object in the client terminal; L. sending the agent objectcopy from the client terminal to the history server; M. retrieving, viathe agent object copy, the program component drafts from the historyserver; and N. destroying the agent object copy at the history server.14. A method according to claim 13 wherein step A comprises the stepof:A1. creating a plurality of server object methods for retrievingprogram component drafts from the program component database in thehistory server; and wherein step E comprises the step of:E1. creating inthe agent object a plurality of agent object methods for calling atleast one of the server object methods.
 15. A method according to claim13 further comprising the step of:O. receiving program component draftsover the network from the history server.
 16. A method according toclaim 13 wherein step L comprises the steps of:L1. receiving the agentobject copy at the history server; and L2. executing the agent objectmethods.